Citizenship identity in emotional dimensions

Paper considers sociological study of the civic identity emotional dimension. The source of empirical data is from a study conducted by the NGO “Ukrainian Institute for Social Research after Oleksandr Yaremenko” commissioned by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine in 2017. Although the topic of identity has been actively studied in recent years, mass public opinion polls are often based on questions where: 1) the average respondent is not always competent; 2) the socially desirable answer is obvious. This study is based on the study of feelings and emotions on such phenomena as patriotism, state, achievements of the Ukrainian people, etc. The purpose of the article is to reveal the emotional dimensions of Ukrainian civic identity based on the analysis of empirical research data, which is relevant from the point of view of both state information policy and sociological research methodology. Respondents emotionally respond to the negative issues and problems of modern social life twice as much as to the positive ones and achievements. This ratio is true for all population groups. The potential of past and present achievements, as a factor of influence on the formation of a civic identity, remains not fully used by the state information policy. The assessment of the armed conflict in the East of Ukraine, as a Russian aggression, positively correlates with the identification of oneself as a Ukrainian citizen, the use of the Ukrainian language, and the vision of Ukrainian nationalism, which is not based on ethnicity. The more optimistic is the vision of Ukraine’s future, the more often the respondent acknowledges Russian aggression, and the pessimistic vision is associated with the choice of the option “civil war”. From the view point of the methodology of public opinion sociological study, it is expedient to appeal to feelings, which allows highlighting the emotional dimension of the phenomenon under study. High heuristic potential has items in which it is not obvious to the respondent which answer option is socially desirable.